The Way Home
by TerpGirl988
Summary: On the way back to Earth, Jack goes to check on Carter after her ordeal with Fifth. Missing scene for "New Order".


**Title**: "The Way Home"

**Author**: TerpGirl988

**Plot**: Jack goes to check on Carter after her ordeal with Fifth. Missing scene for "New Order".

**Episodes Referenced**: 6x12, "Unnatural Selection"; 8x01&02, "New Order"

**Author's Note**: I previously posted fics under a different name, but I have decided to start over with a clean slate. This came to me during a rewatch of SG-1. I hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer**: Stargate SG-1 is a wonderful show and ... yep, not mine. The idea for the story is. And it's unbeta'd, so any mistakes are mine as well!

* * *

The _Daniel Jackson _was flying through hyperspace under Thor's guidance. Next to him, Colonel Jack O'Neill rolled his eyes. He still couldn't believe that the Asgard had named their ship ... after the resident archeologist. What was next, the _Teal'c_?

Sounded like a ride at an amusement park.

Jack shook his head, then turned his neck and looked at the bespectacled man sitting cross legged on the floor. "You seen Carter?"

Daniel opened his mouth to reply, but Thor beat him to it. "Major Carter expressed a desire to sleep for a brief time before we arrive back at Earth. I do not know her exact location."

Daniel gave Jack a helpless shrug. "Yeah, that's what I was gonna say too."

"If you wish, I could use internal sensors-"

Jack held up a hand. "I got this."

He walked towards the Jaffa on the way out, giving him a quick pat on the shoulder.

Just before he passed him completely, Jack stopped for a moment and looked up. "If I'm not back in five minutes," was all he said, eliciting a nod from the slightly smiling Teal'c.

A few minutes later, Jack wasn't entirely sure what part of the ship he was in, but it was far enough he couldn't hear the echo of the occasional chatter from the bridge. He was about to reach for the communication device still in his pocket when he caught a glimpse of a booted foot laying on the floor inside one of the storage rooms.

Mindful of his own boots and not wanting to wake her up, he stepped cautiously into the room.

Carter was laying on the floor, a green bundle that looked a lot like his jacket serving as a pillow under her head. Her body faced the bulkhead that she was lying parallel to, and her face was scrunched up in a frown.

O'Neill frowned himself, then stifled a groan as he lowered himself to the floor. His back was flush against the perpendicular wall and he bent his knees and brought them as close to his chest as his joints would allow without too much complaining.

A sigh escaped him, and he ran a hand through his hair. It seemed like a constant battle to get Carter to rest whenever they were off world or on base; the fact that she now wanted to worried him. Yet judging by the expression she wore in her sleep, Jack got the impression it wasn't entirely tranquil.

He reached a hand out but hovered over her bare arm. He didn't really want to wake her up. God knows she needed the sleep.

But he couldn't stand seeing that look on her face.

His hand lightly grazed her arm. "Carter," he called in a soft whisper. "Carter?"

She moaned and started to roll over. A few blinks later, she stared up at him in confusion. "Colonel," she replied, trying to be as formal as she could while lying flat on the ground.

He held up a hand. "At ease, Carter. It's not like I'm a general or anything."

A smile flitted across her face and quickly disappeared. "Yes, sir." She sat up against the wall, matching his position. "Where are we?"

"Still in hyperspace. Thor says we'll be back in time for dinner."

Carter nodded and pulled her arm up, checking her wristwatch. "Sir, it's 0630. It shouldn't take us that long to get back to Earth," she replied, eyebrows lowering as she gave him a baffled look.

He smirked. "I may or may not have asked him to take the long way home. Figured the world is safe for now. Getting back a few hours late isn't gonna kill us."

Carter nodded in agreement, then pulled her slender legs up to her body and wrapped her arms around them. "Sounds good to me."

Jack pursed his lips and slowly nodded. Words were escaping him; even a joke wouldn't come to mind. So he turned and looked at his 2IC.

She was sitting with her back completely flush against the wall. Her face was empty save for the slight look of horror in her widened eyes. She probably didn't even know she was showing any expression, but that was just a testimony to how well they knew each other. To any passerby, it might appear that she got woken up and was contemplating how to get back to sleep.

"You okay?" Jack asked in a soft voice, gently nudging her arm with his.

Carter shook her head, as if she was coming out of a trance. She smiled incredulously, looking like she was trying to convince herself more so than him. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little worn out."

"You wanna talk about it?"

She turned and looked at him. She shrugged. "What's there to talk about?"

"Carter, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but you were held captive by the Replicators. Specifically, one who has the mind of a child and is obsessed with you." Jack dropped his head, trying to match her gaze. "On Earth, that amounts to kidnapping. And I got a feeling that Fifth is a sadistic little prick."

"With good reason," Carter muttered.

"Ah!" Jack interrupted before she could continue that train of thought. He held up a finger, not pointed in any particular direction. "You are not the responsible party for this."

"Technically, sir-"

"No technically, no butts, no actuallys, nada!" He slowly pulled his hand back and rubbed his neck. "You are too smart to even think that, Carter. Don't go there. And that's final."

She opened her mouth, ready to say something else, but his last words caused her to clamp her mouth shut. An unsure nod turned into a decisive one. "Yes, sir."

"So back to my other question. You wanna talk about it?"

Carter sighed. "It's all going in my report."

"I'll peer edit."

That caused her to smile, which in turned gave Jack a reason to.

"Well, the Replicators still stick their hand in your head to torture you. Make you see what they want you to see. Make you feel what they want you to feel. Try and make you think what they want you to think."

Jack shuddered. "Yeah, I remember that all too well."

Sam glanced over at him. "From our first encounter with the human-form Replicators."

He inhaled sharply. "Yeah."

She slightly tilted her head. "They must've done a number on you."

"Yes, well, any life form that can stick their hand in your head is bound you leave you a little disturbed by the whole encounter," Jack replied in his usual snarky manner.

It must not have convinced her. She sighed. "Sir."

His eyes closed and he sighed loudly. His head leaned back against the wall. "It was brutal," he replied in answer to her unspoken question. "When he-" Jack quickly corrected himself with a twitch of his head. "-it realized I wasn't gonna give him everything he wanted up front, he made me relive Charlie shooting himself."

Carter's eyes widened, not just in horror but probably realizing that this was the most the colonel had opened up to her in a while. She shook her head. "I don't think what Fifth did to me is anything compared to that," she answered softly.

"What was his torture of choice?"

She opened her mouth, but didn't respond immediately. The look on her face was one Jack had come to call her thinking face. Her lips would purse, her eyebrows would raise and lower, and after a few seconds of contemplation she would speak.

"There were a few different methods. But the longest lasting one? He tried to make me believe that I had left the SGC and was living in Montana, of all places. That I was content to live on a farm with hi - with horses and pigs and goats."

Jack nodded, but the slight syllable change hadn't gone unnoticed. But he wasn't in the mood to press for more details than she was willing to divulge.

"And when I realized it was a farce and Fifth was still there, I told him I'd rather be dead than trapped there. And I appealed to his humanity one last time." She smiled faintly. "Next thing I know, you guys found me out in the woods."

"Yeah, not quite the reunion I was thinking of after being on ice for a few months. But a nice reunion nonetheless."

Carter nodded. "There should've been cake."

Jack turned his head to her slowly. She did the same, and judging by the expression on her face, it wasn't what she had been planning on saying.

But then Jack started laughing and she started giggling and he tried to hold up a finger to get her to stop and she pressed his hand down and before they knew it, they were sitting shoulder to shoulder with their hands touching, chests slightly shaking as the laughs became chuckles and they began to subside.

He looked down at their hands. Carter's was smaller than his, but not small by any means. He turned his over so that their palms met and his fingers intertwined with hers.

She didn't pull away; instead, she leaned her head on his shoulder and she exhaled heavily through her nose. "Sir?" Carter asked in a whisper.

"Yeah."

"Thanks," was her reply, causing Jack to turn his head a little. But all he saw was blonde hair.

"For what? And don't say nothing; otherwise it's gonna get a little déjà vu-y in here," he responded, making her chuckle softly.

"For checking on me. I appreciate the thought." And then she yawned before she could catch herself.

Jack smirked. "Any time, Carter. I better let you get some more sleep. God knows we'll have a mountain of paperwork to deal with once we get home."

"Yeah," she agreed.

Jack disentangled his hand from hers and immediately missed the contact. He brought himself to his knees as she began to slide back down into a horizontal position on the floor. The temperature was a little colder than it had been, and she rubbed her hands briskly against her arms.

"I'd offer my jacket," Jack said wryly as she looked up at him, "but you're already using it as a pillow."

Carter lightly gritted her teeth. "Sorry, sir. Old habit."

He waved a dismissive hand at her. "It's not a problem, really. I was worried about the smell."

Blue eyes looked up again in worry.

"After all, I've been wearing it for three months."

Sam laughed.

Jack smiled, then looked around the storage room and found a blanket laying on top of a crate. He reached over and pulled it off, trying not to wince as his knee griped at him a little, and laid it over Carter. "There ya go."

Heavy lidded eyes nodded at him. "Thanks."

He nodded back, then bit his lip. "I'll let you know when we're close, okay?"

"A'right." Her slurred tone let Jack know that she was much closer to sleep than he had realized, so he smiled and stood.

Just as he was about to leave the room, she called out, "Colonel?"

He spun around.

Carter had propped her torso up, arms bent behind her as she leaned on her elbows for support. She was biting her lip, trying to make up her mind whether or not she should ask the question on her mind. "What's the last thing you remember? Before going into stasis? Or do you remember anything when you had the Repository of Knowledge in your head?"

"Yeah, I remember. Not all of it. Thor said it would come back eventually."

A little too quickly, she nodded her head. "Oh. Okay."

"But I remember ... stuff. You coming to my house. The engine room. The only time you've called me Jack and I let you get away with it because I didn't realize you were calling me Jack." He smiled at her. "I remember the good stuff."

Carter hung her head with a chuckle. When she finally looked up again, warm brown eyes were smiling back at her.

"Get some sleep, Sam. That's an order."

"'Kay."

She laid back down and Jack walked back to the bridge.

* * *

Fin.


End file.
